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Joshing Me
The following idiom was sent in by one of our website visitors...
This
from a website visitor:
This is one that a friend of mine heard (he is a very reliable source),
and you may want to look into. I am a coin collector, and I've known for
a long time that the "reeding" along the edges of coins was
put there by the mint to eliminate the problem of coin shaving in the
1800's. People would shave gold from the edges of their coins and sell
the dust yet still spend the coin. The man apparently the most notorious
for this practice was named Josh something (maybe you could track down
the last name). So when a merchant was given a coin of questionable diameter
he would ask "You aren't Joshing me are you?" Fun site!
This from another website visitor:
http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/Newton/Biog.htm
"Sir Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day over 350 years ago in
1642."
As well as catching fakers Newton was also responsible for changing all
the coins. Some unscrupulous people would trim the coins. But it was very
difficult to spot if this had happened. Engraving was put around the edges
of the coin so that people could tell their coins were intact. If you
look at your change you can see that this still happens today."
This from another website visitor:
This is one that a friend of mine heard (he is a very reliable source),
and you may want to look into. I am a coin collector, and I've known for
a long time that the "reeding" along the edges of coins was
put there by the mint to eliminate the problem of coin shaving in the
1800's. People would shave gold from the edges of their coins and sell
the dust yet still spend the coin. The man apparently the most notorious
for this practice was named Josh something (maybe you could track down
the last name). So when a merchant was given a coin of questionable diameter
he would ask "You aren't Joshing me are you?" Fun site!
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